He beat Jones off pit road during a green-flag stop with just over 40 laps remaining and seemed poised for his ninth series win and maintaining the lead after another restart.
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The last time a non-Chase driver won a postseason race was Hamlin at Homstead-Miami Speedway in 2013. He got back on the lead lap during the second caution that came out on lap 120.
The rookie led a career-best 75 laps in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup opening race and looked as if he’d open his first appearance in the playoffs with a trip to Victory Lane. Alex Bowman was in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Chicagoland Speedway, as he and Jeff Gordon continue to share the seat as substitute drivers for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who remains sidelined by a concussion. It was not the first time victory had seemingly been stripped from his grasp.
The auto Truex will drive Sunday led the first 16 laps at Pocono on August 1 before coming in to pit during a caution.
But that all changed when Michael McDowell had an accident in Turn 4 with five laps left and all but three cars went into the pits for new tires.
“We went through a pretty rough five- or six-week patch where we didn’t run near as good as we should and I feel like lately we’ve been running better”, Kenseth said as Chase for the Sprint Cup activities opened Thursday. “We’re lucky it happened early and we were able to have an awesome race vehicle all day”.
However, while Truex’s team earned a net benefit in the end from cautions and tire issues, two of the Chase’s strongest competitors suffered. By Lap 249, he was back on top and keeping a manageable advantage on the rest of the field. He won the Southern 500 two weeks ago as he got off pit road ahead of Kevin Harvick, who had been the race’s dominant auto. A steamed Harvick walked quickly off pit road without comment after the race, ignoring reporters’ questions while sipping water all the way to the motorhome lot.
This much we knew: There would be an overtime restart, and the leaders were pitting. Harvick wound up going a lap down. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. And Tony Stewart told reporters he just didn’t feel like talking about a frustrating 16th-place finish. If he can’t win it, though, Stewart doesn’t have someone in mind that he would like see to capture the championship – not when everyone is chasing after the same goal of reaching Homestead I line for a title.
Joining Harvick outside of the Chase grid after Chicagoland is Kyle Larson.
But if you want a dark horse to cheer for – and who doesn’t?
Johnson dominated the middle of the race, leading 118 laps, until Elliott got by him on lap 176 of 267.
FRESH TIRES RULE: When the final caution came out, the big question was whether or not to pit. As the lowest Chase driver outside of Chris Buescher, McMurray provides a low-risk, high-reward option for this weekend.
There are eight former Chicagoland winners in the Chase for the Championship and nine in Sunday’s race.
He failed to make the Chase.
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The first race in the nine-race run to the title – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland – is set for 2:30 p.m. on NBCSN.
